Math-rockers Tusk are at 'home' in the North East

The best is yet to come from math-rockers Tusk who tell Ruth Lawson that their latest EP is their best to date

You get the measure of how committed a band are when you ask to hear their “story”.

And when Tusk’s guitarist Jonathon Evans, who also does keys and vocals, rewound back a decade to begin their tale I knew the guys meant business.

Founding members Jonathon and Tom Robertshaw (vocals, guitar) bonded over their love of music back in their school days and so they set about teaching others to play guitar.

Jonathon explains: “Tom moved to university in 2006 and met Andy Cutts (bass) and they started playing together. I moved to Newcastle for university a year later and the three of us started playing around town as an acoustic act. Then we met our old drummer, John, and ‘went electric’ under the name Runwells.

“That’s when we started taking things more seriously and we played the local scene for a couple of years. A departure from the acoustic roots of our music resulted in the name change but then John moved away to the South for work and we recruited our current drummer, Sam Hodgson, through a Gumtree ad.”

And that was only about a year-and-a-half ago but with new EP, Interrobang, the four-piece are confident fans will like what they hear. Months worth of effort has gone into the record that Jonathon says is one of the most memorable things they have achieved together as a band.

Straying from their initial traditional influences, Tusk have now evolved musically taking inspiration from experimental and progressive music but still tinged with pop stylings, Jonathon hastens to add.

“Our new EP, Interrobang, is easily the best and most exciting thing we have ever done. You can expect catchy math-rock riffs, post-rock atmospherics and pop sensibilities,” he says.

“Some of the songs on the EP took months to finish, a lot of consideration goes in to each part and we are always challenging ourselves.”

The EP is named after the Interrobang, a non-standard item of punctuation which combines the functions of the exclamation mark and the question mark. As a result, the EP has already attracted attention from a blog documenting unusual punctuation use which is definitely a first for the band.

Interrobang, released by Tiny Lights Recordings, will be marked by a launch show on Saturday, April 20, at Newcastle’s Heartattack and Vine, a new independent space. Support will come from Tissue Culture, Night Freight and Electric Church.

Jonathon says: “For now we are focusing on the release of the EP and the launch party to celebrate it. That’s our only local gig we have booked at the minute. We just can’t wait for everyone to hear the EP.”

Newcastle-based Tusk will be relying on the ever faithful support of fellow North East musicians who have been championing the band for some time.

“The North East seems to have had a good reaction to our music, there’s always been a few people who have supported what we do but it seems to be other musicians or bands who get most excited about our music,” says Jonathon. “There are some brilliant bands in the North East at the moment. Our favourites include Arcs & Trauma, Tomahawks for Targets, Cauls and Blank Maps. Tiny Lights has some amazing acts too, Tissue Culture are probably our favourite ‘label mates’.”

Tusk will be playing at Heartattack and Vine on April 20 to launch Interrobang which will be available to buy two days later. For further details, visit www.facebook.com/wearetusk

Send a story

Advertising Department

Print

The Chronicle is read by more adults than any other regional newspaper on sale in the area. With 170,115 average issue readers, this reach extends to 366,753 weekly readers – that’s over 1/4 of adults in the area!

The average time spent reading the Chronicle is 31 minutes; which shows the length of time that readers are engaging with the editorial and advertising content.

49,199* copies of the Chronicle are sold on average each day as it continues to be an integral part of the region.

*ABC Newcastle Chronicle 100% paid, Mon - Sat, JICREG, 1/10/2012

Online

Unique Users: 1.6m

Page Views: 10m

Audience figures from Omniture, monthly average (Jan - Jun 2014).

More than 1 in 3 ChronicleLive users have clicked through to an online advertisement, demonstrating that our users are responsive and receptive to Internet advertising messages.

ChronicleLive reaches an internet-savvy audience, with 84% of users having purchased products or services online in the past 12 months.

Download our rate cards for all the prices of our print and digital products.